Effects of subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation on the speech of Spanish-speaking Parkinson's disease patients during the first year of treatment.
Nicolás Castillo-Triana, Maryluz Camargo-Mendoza, Óscar Bernal-Pacheco
PMID 39230179WHAT IT FOUND
Across the group, speech measures did not show confirmed change during the first year after STN-DBS.
Individual patients varied, with some increases and some decreases in specific measures, so no uniform speech effect can be assumed.
Key findings
01At the group level, most speech measures did not show differences across follow-up, and speech in the OFF-medication state did not differ from speech in the ON-medication state.
02Some individual patients showed consistent increases in maximum phonation time or intensity, and others showed consistent decreases or worsening acoustic measures.
03The one participant with mild cognitive impairment showed worsening articulation after surgery.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
There was no control group of Parkinson's disease patients without STN-DBS, so the study cannot separate speech change caused by stimulation from normal disease progression. Only nine participants completed follow-up, so the results cannot be generalised to all Spanish-speaking patients with Parkinson's disease. STN-DBS was always ON after surgery, so speech when stimulation was OFF was not assessed. Vocal tremor measures were not reported because of the analysis methods. Four of thirteen initially accepted participants did not complete the study for health, device, or insurance reasons.
Declared interests
No financial support was declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that STN-DBS improves or worsens speech in Spanish-speaking patients with Parkinson's disease. The group analysis did not confirm change, and the study had no control group, so individual increases or decreases cannot be separated from medication state, disease progression, or stimulation effects.